Thanksgiving 2016

We were oh so pleased to leave behind the sickness that plagued our household for the entire beginning of the month of November.  Truly, it was 3 weeks of yuck around here, which ended with Jason knocking on death's door over the week leading up to Thanksgiving.  He even agreed to go to the doctor--- which is saying something.  Luckily, whatever the crud was that had everyone but me down for the count seemed to have been chased out by our sheer hope and blind faith that somehow we'd all see the other side of this thing.  I am almost convinced that it was flu-esque, and that explains why I was spared, because I am the only one of us who has had my flu shot this year.  I've had the kids scheduled to get theirs a few times, and each time it was either cancelled by the doctor's office due to lack of vaccine supply, or someone was starting with the illness.  And so...consider me grateful, first and foremost, for three children and a husband who were once again vertical and no longer hacking up lungs in order to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.

Wednesday of last week was what I will lovingly call a whirlwind where I failed every single person in my family.  First was poor Toby (not a person, I know, but go with me on this) who gave me the saddest look when we dropped him off at the kennel.  He seemed all excited when we got in the car-- I think, in his mind, he was thinking, "Oh isn't this so nice, they're taking me for a ride..." which was quickly followed by, "Oh crap...not this place."  Once we were in the door, he quickly turned and tried to make a bee line for the back door to leave again.  That broke my heart.  Lucky for me, there wasn't much time to lament the poor holiday accommodations for our furry friend, because I had not one or two, but three school parties to attend.  Please know that these parties lasted a total of 2 hours, but not the same 2 hours if that makes any sense.  I thought I had it figured out when to go to each classroom and how much time I could spend there, but it all fell apart when Lauren had a skit that she wanted me to see that coincided with policing Josh's class snacks to make sure the coast was clear on peanut food (it wasn't, by the way, which is why I was there).  I should add that Mara was having no part of me leaving her classroom to go to the others'.  And so, all three were disappointed in the amount of time I got to spend with each of them, and I was left sweating and very stressed by the time we left to come home.  Friends (who were still in the classrooms with their children) were sending me pictures of each of the kids doing their thing which was so sweet, but it made me realize that I'm going to need reinforcements for the Christmas parties if we're going to make this work.

We left for Lewistown around 2:00 after getting packed up and ready to go.  I don't think we've been to Mom and Dad's for an overnight since the summer, so it was so nice to think about the idea of staying there with them for 2 nights.  The kids were thrilled.  We were all sad to learn that Brooke and Hayden were both a bit under the weather, but after a sad Wednesday night, they surely didn't seem sick at all and we all had a great time.  We watched lots of movies, laughed a whole bunch, ate a delicious meal and even had some arts and crafts time with Aunt Libby and Uncle Zig in their garage when Nana and Pap needed some quiet time at the house sans 5 rambunctious kids.  We stayed until Friday morning, and really did have a wonderful visit.  

When we got home Friday, we had big plans to get the house decorated for Christmas prior to going to pick up Toby at the kennel.  Since we couldn't get him until 5:00, it was perfect for us to get the tree up and the rest of our Christmas decorations prior to bringing him back home.  There's just something about getting the tree up and seeing all of the lights and colors of the holiday décor.  It makes me want to sit in the dark living room, with only the tree lights on, with a cup of coffee and a good book.  I've been obliging myself that luxury between 6:00-6:30 each morning, not with a book, but while I put my makeup on before heading in to the office.  It's as good as it's going to get, so I'll take it. 

Hopefully you enjoyed the pictures.  We have so much to be thankful for that one day really doesn't seem like enough time to ponder it all.  Suffice it to say that this family of mine-- imperfect as we all are-- is on the top of the list this year for me.  So grateful for a few days to spend with them just being together.

Sick City

I should warn you that this just might be the most uplifting, inspiring thing you read all day.  Either that or the most depressing.  And I'm pretty sure it's not the first one.

Welcome to Sick City, population 5.  To say it has been a week would be an understatement.  I've called it my "Sickcation" and a few other things that probably aren't appropriate for repeating on the internet.  After ten straight days of battling this thing...I can say only a few things for certain.  First, we still don't know what it even is.  It was suspected that Lauren and Josh started with strep, but it hasn't acted at all like strep other than the first day or so of symptoms.  So what we're doing to treat it seems more like dealing with symptoms than treating the underlying cause.  And the second thing I can tell you for certain is that we are more than ready for a return to the normal routine.  I feel totally out of my schedule, out of control of events and disconnected from the office.  And none of those are happy feelings for me. 

This all started literally 5 minutes before we were ready to walk out the door to the Penn State game on November 5th.  Josh started complaining about a headache, and Lauren was sacked out on the chair.  Both things we chalked up to the fact that we had friends here from out of town who had arrived late on Friday night, which had all of the kids awake far later than normal.  But there was a gut feeling that I had that said there might be something more to this.  I should add that we survived September and October with nary a sniffle in this house, which I was feeling pretty good about.  But when supper time hit at the game and Josh was crying with a headache, and then we got the report that Lauren was in a similar situation here with the babysitter, we knew that we were in trouble.

Lauren met us, still on the couch, when we came in around midnight from the game, and we started to battle fever.  Josh's fever started shortly after.  After a long night, we opted for Urgent Care on Sunday morning and then proceeded to wait over 3 hours to be seen there.  I really was thinking it was strep based on the symptoms and our unfortunate past experience, which made waiting the long time worth it since the medicine was really the only way to make them better.  And in our experience, a day or two of meds usually has the kids up and about like nothing ever happened.  I was in favor of starting that day or two clock sooner rather than later.  And so, we waited.  Lauren was the sicker of the two, and was not appreciating the fact that she was sitting in an uncomfortable waiting room instead of being curled up on the couch.  Josh's strep test was negative, and Lauren's was.....well, she wouldn't let the nurse swab her throat to find out.  As in, had both hands covering her mouth, violently shaking her head "no" as if to say, "STEP BACK!  I am having NO part in your strep test."  This defiance threw me for a loop, because this is Lauren we're talking about and she is the easy one.  Normally just a stern look snaps her into shape.  It's rare that words are necessary.  But on this particular morning, after this particular amount of waiting, she was digging in her heels.  And on this particular day, after the long night of not sleeping, and this particular amount of waiting in a waiting room with three children, I also was digging in mine.  On the nurse's second attempt to swab her throat, Lauren took a swing at the nurse and managed to hit her.  I was at once dumbfounded and also the most humiliated I have ever been.  And it was in that particular moment that I thought I would beat this child in public.  She knew she was in major trouble.  The nurse left, the doctor came in and suggested that we would just have to wait this out because they would not treat strep without the test being positive.  After the morning we'd had, I wasn't in favor of that plan.  But I also wasn't really in favor of motherhood at all at that moment.  I asked the doctor if she would try one more time, and Lauren finally obliged.  They said her test was positive, although I wonder now if they didn't do that just to get us a prescription and get us the heck out of that office.  Frankly, I wouldn't have blamed them.  I made Lauren find the nurse and tell her she was sorry for her behavior, and then I also apologized, began to cry and ushered my sickos out of the office, never to return again I hope.

See....I told you this was uplifting material.

What followed was 5 days of the kids laying on the couch.  Motrin every 6 hours to battle raging fever.  And no difference whatsoever from the medicine.  During this time, Mara has been healthy, so I've been doing the running with her to school while Jason sat with the big kids at home until I got back.  Then we'd wait for Judy to come down a little later, and I would go to pick Mara up at 11 and take her to the office with me to keep her out of the germs as much as possible.  We also took about 435 vitamins during this time, almost willing ourselves NOT to get sick.

Lauren and Josh finally went back to school on Thursday, later in the morning because we all had just had ENOUGH.

Which brings me to Thursday night.  I was at the school for the first of two meetings when I got a text from Jason, who was home with the kids, that said "Mara is crying and hot."  And I knew I was doomed.  So I left the meeting and came home to snuggle yet another sick baby who felt like garbage.  I stayed with her on Friday because she needed to go to the doctor, and because her fever was spiking so high and so fast when the Motrin wore off that she was shaking and that was making me super nervous.  Luckily, or not, this happened when we were sitting in the doctor's office waiting for her strep test (which was negative) to come back, so the doctor got to witness it and tell me what was going on.  So the rest of our Friday was spent snuggled on the couch with me accomplishing nothing and watching a whole lot of Disney Jr.  Which was definitely not the Young and the Restless or This is Us that I had hoped to catch up on.   

The big kids perked WAY up on the weekend.  Lauren had a pile of work to do for school, part of which was to disguise a turkey so that it wouldn't get eaten for Thanksgiving.  We had the most fun with it!  I hadn't ever heard of this project before, but it was a blast to work with her on.  She made a list of supplies she wanted me to get for her, and then we worked on Friday night to assemble her turkey disguised as a Christmas tree, hoping that it would keep him safe from becoming Thanksgiving dinner.  I can't wait to see what the other kids came up with when we go in to school next week for their Thanksgiving parties.  Mara seemed to perk up on Friday night as well and her fever was down nicely.  So I thought maybe we were on the upswing.

Saturday was Hayden's birthday party in Lewistown, and also another special event I had wanted to participate in, so when she woke up happy on Saturday morning with no fever, we decided that 24 hours on meds had done the trick for Mara and headed to Libby and Zig's for the party.  All was well until about 4:00 when Mara's fever came back and she ran out of steam.  That happened again after attending church on Sunday morning and we have been dealing with recurring fever ever since.  I have kept her home from school yesterday and today again because I can't get the fever to leave us the heck alone.  To say I've just about had it is an understatement.  I'm hanging my hopes on the fact that day 5 was when Lauren and Josh went back to school, and hoping that tomorrow is the last day of this mess for the kids.

And dear Lord, please have mercy on my soul and keep me from getting whatever this is.  The prayer of my heart.